James J. Peterson, R.N., Ph.D.

Academic Title

Senior Biological Scientist

Contact Information

phone: (352) 273-7413
email: jimmyjop@ufl.edu

Lab

R2-236/240

About

Dr. Peterson has pursued questions at the interface of basic science and applied technology and medicine. In 1999, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, in the field of cancer therapy studying the fate and clearance of radio-labeled therapeutic bioconjugates from the circulation. As the tools of genetics and molecular biology exploded, he was privileged to work with Dr. Clay Smith in the University of Florida’s Department of Ophthalmology using cloned constructs (e.g. fluorescent fusion proteins) to address persistent limitations of immunohistochemistry. These and other molecular-genetic techniques were applied to controversies concerning the light driven translocation of the visual signal transduction protein, arrestin, in photoreceptors. With Dr. Larry Takemoto, in the biology department at Kansas State University, Dr. Peterson published reports in another part of the eye, answering questions of lens crystallin protein interactions using novel informatics (MS3D), mass spectrometry, and surface plasmon resonance. Again at the University of Florida Dept. of Ophthalmology, in partnership with Dr. William Hauswirth and Genzyme, Inc., he utilized a mouse model of retinal angiogenesis, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), to study the application of viral therapeutics to reduce devastating ocular neovascularization that occurs in eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). With Dr. Lonnie Ingram, extensive knowledge of bio-analytical instrumentation was applied to help devise a practical, large scale conversion of plant cell-based carbohydrates into fuels and chemicals. From 2011-2013, Dr. Peterson pursued a nursing degree from Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida and is a licensed, registered nurse. During this training he assisted Dr. Shannon Boye, Ph.D., and vitreoretinal faculty in their pursuit of clinically applicable viral ocular therapeutics for the treatment of tragic sight-stealing genetic diseases (e.g. Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA) and Usher’s syndrome). Dr. Peterson’s commitment to apply both basic and clinically relevant data to the lives of real people finds expression in many ways in the ocular gene therapy environment in the Boye lab; from acting as lab manager, totraining new personnel in bio-analytical techniques, to conducting expert and well-documented protein analysis (e.g. Western), immuno-histochemical experiments and confocal microscopy, to watching for clues and new techniques from the literature that may assist us in our pursuit of practical cures for blindness.